Various methods of making and distributing ice cubes are known in the art. In this specification, the term "ice cube" will be understood to refer to any fragment of ice of a size and shape which is customarily contained in drinking vessels for the purpose of keeping beverages cool. While many such fragments indeed have a generally cubic appearance, other shapes are known, such as cylinders and segments thereof, or less regular shapes.
A common method of making ice cubes is to manually fill separate compartments of an ice cube tray with water which is frozen in a freezer. Using the formed ice cubes involves the inconvenience of removing them from the ice cube tray and usually transferring them to an intermediate storage container which is kept in the freezer, or an insulated ice bucket when more immediate use is required. The ice is normally handled with a scoop, a pair of tongs or even with the fingers to transfer it to a drinking vessel.
In instances where a comparatively large quantity of ice is required, manufactured ice may be purchased and stored in a freezer. Portions of the manufactured ice can be transferred to an intermediate storage container as required.
In refrigerators which have automatic ice makers, ice cubes are dispensed into a holding container in a freezer compartment of the refrigerator. This container has a function equivalent to that of the intermediate storage containers for the manually made ice cubes.
In some cases, the holding container is part of a system which allows ice cubes to be automatically dispensed on demand into a drinking vessel through a chute in the freezer compartment door. While this represents a convenience to the user, the process is sometimes too slow, since there is on occasion a need to distribute relatively large quantities of ice in a short time.
It would be advantageous to dispense ice directly into several drinking vessels in fairly quick succession. A conventional holding container does not lend itself to this; when tipping the container to pour ice cubes into a drinking vessel, it is difficult if not impossible to control the ice cubes exiting the container. Not only is there a lack of structure to guide the ice into a receiving vessel, but also ice cubes build up near the rim of the container until it is tipped too far, whereupon an excess of ice exits the container, typically overfilling the vessel and being spilt on the floor. Alternative current systems also include automatic ice making machines. These automatic machines fill a cube mold, displace the ice into a reservoir and translate the ice through a freezer door to facilitate translation of the ice from the reservoir, the automatic dispenser draw the ice from the bottom, or lower portion, of the reservoir. Therefore, the need still exists for an ice dispensing structure which facilitates selective dispensing of the ice. The need also exists for an accurate dispensing of the ice without requiring extensive or complicated mechanical drives.